It’s not often I do this, but the distance I ran yesterday, coupled with the effort (avg HR 85%, max 93%) led to a Garmin training effect of 5.0. I like it when I get a five. It means I know I’ve pushed it, I know I’ve run hard, or as Janice said I ‘beasted it’. 😉

My longest run for a while, I’ve done a couple of 7 milers since I’ve been getting back on track, but each one has given me a niggle. The last one, last week on Tuesday, 7.15 miles and I got an annoying sore knee at about 5 miles in. Hip flexor was the issue a few weeks before that. But yesterday was different. Yesterday it just worked.

I felt strong at the start, and pushed out a much faster than normal first mile. My avg hr was higher than normal, but I let it be and continued, slowing down a bit as I went. Uphill miles 2-5, the downhill the rest of the way. The magic kicked in about 45 minutes in, just as I was running down Byres road. The downhill definitely helped.

It might sound strange, but I could almost feel the endorphins flowing through my body. Imagine this magic stuff, flowing through your veins, pumping fast, making you feel great. Better than any drug or alcohol. You feel amazing, strong, fit, magic. My cape was flowing behind me, the sun was looking lovely as it started to dip into the autumnal afternoon sky. The smile was on.

I’m back. I’m not as fit as I have been, but I’m back. Before a run like that wouldn’t have been so hard or as much of an effort. But yesterday, a run like that and my Garmin suggested a recovery time of 72 hours, or three days. Lol. Now I’ll take my rest, then I’m looking forward to building my fitness up again.

See my vo2 max since I got my watch above. The peak is 55 for just before my marathon in may after plenty of training (and a 3:32 marathon :-O), it dipped to 53 for my half marathon pb at the end of June, then in July into August it dipped right down to 49. Still quite high compared to the average human, 😉 now it’s up a bit to 51.

So at 6am this morning, my Garmin was suggesting 58 hours recovery, that would take me to around 4pm on Wednesday. Mmmm. I’ll see. I’ll maybe swim tonight, or maybe not. Then run easy on Tuesday and take it from there, see how I feel.

I had three days rest last week, then finished the week strongly. We’ll see what this week brings. One thing is for sure, I’ll be keeping an eye on what my Garmin coach says.